


Tell Me, Did You See The News Last Night?

by snufflyphoenix



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, these guys have some shit to work through
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 22:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11300403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snufflyphoenix/pseuds/snufflyphoenix
Summary: It's all Lilith's fault.Set after Lilith and Roland return from Helios, Lilith does some introspection.





	Tell Me, Did You See The News Last Night?

He’s been searching for her for ages when he finds her. She’s out by the shipping containers at the edge of town, phase-blasting what looks like a dinner plate about. He knocks on the side of one, smiling slightly when she looks his way. “I’ve been looking for you,” Roland tells her.

“Does Helena want me?” Lilith asks, kicking aside what can now be identified as a discarded psycho’s mask. 

Roland shakes his head. “No, no, nothing like that. I just came to check on you.”

Lilith laughs weakly and approaches him to kiss his cheek. “Aren’t you cute. I’m fine.”

“Are you?” He frowns, noticing how her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She nods and turns away, scuffing the toe of her boot against the ground. “It just doesn’t seem like it.”

“Well, I am.” She sits down on a pile of scrap metal, picking up a small piece to turn it over in her hands. “Just super.” 

Roland doesn’t say anything for a minute, just sits next to her. “...what’s going on?”

There’s silence for a while before Lilith speaks again quietly, her gaze fixed on the metal in her palm.

“It’s my fault, isn’t it?” 

Roland frowns at her. “What’s your fault?”

“Everything,” she sighs, tapping the scrap against the armoured pad on her knee. “All this shit with Hyperion.”

“That’s ridiculous.” His frown grows. “What’s brought this on?”

She shrugs a shoulder. “It’s just.. Ever since we returned from Elpis we’ve been preparing for some kind of attack. Everyone’s stressed; we’re under-supplied, we’re outmanned and we have no idea when that bastard is going to come for us. But we know he is coming, after what we did to him.” She pauses, tossing the metal to the side. “What _I_ did to him.”

“He had to be stopped,” Roland reminds her, taking her hand to lace their fingers together. “We had to get rid of the Eye of the Destroyer, we know exactly what he would have done with it if we had let him keep it. … And you had no idea he would survive what you did.”

“I still don’t know how he did.” She says emphatically, her brow furrowed as she leans her head against his shoulder. “He should have died, I phase-blasted that relic into his face, he shouldn’t have been able to survive that.” 

“No, he shouldn’t,” Roland agrees, running his thumb over the back of Lilith’s hand as he leans his head against hers. “You did what you thought was best.”

“But it didn’t work and now we’re fucked.” She huffs, toeing at a bit of gravel. 

“We’re not--” Roland stops himself at the look she is giving him and he chuckles low. “Okay, we are fucked but they’re not taking us down without a fight and we have a contingency plan. We’ll get everyone out safely.”

“When they raze our town to the ground.” Lilith draws her knees up to her chest, wrapping her free arm around them. “I should have stayed to make sure the job was done. I thought there was no way he’d live through that so I left and now thousands of people will die because I got him furious with Pandora.”

“Lily, look at me,” Roland frowns deeply in concern as he watches her. “There is nothing that man is planning now that he wasn’t planning before we destroyed the Eye, and there’s nothing he’s planning that he wasn’t planning before you melted his face off. We knew what he was capable of and that’s why we had to stop him. We knew this from the second he put those scientists in the airlock. This is not your fault.” 

“Then why do I feel so guilty?” Her voice is tiny, smaller than he’s ever heard it and he leans in to kiss her gently, feeling her breath falter a little against his lips.

His brow furrows as she leans her forehead against his, a few stray tears of hers falling into their laps. “You are not responsible for Jack’s actions. He’s a grown man, hell bent on genocide. He’s always hated bandits, he wanted to get rid of them as soon as he had the means.” He wiped her tears away with the back of his finger. “We did the right thing and we won’t let him win.”

She shakes her head, trying to steady herself. “But the shit we heard him screaming over Echo…” 

“Is the ramblings of someone too far gone to help.” Roland tells her steadily, squeezing her hand. “The only thing we can do now is take him out, and we _can_ do that. You know we can.” 

She laughs weakly, sniffing as she meets his eyes. “Why are you always right?”

“I have a knack,” Roland says wryly and when she smiles slightly he can’t help but return it. “We can win this, alright? We can and we will.”

“You sound so sure.” Lilith looks down at their joined hands, bringing them to her lips to kiss his. 

“Someone has to be,” Roland tells her, “or else he’s already won.”

She leans in to kiss him properly, a sad smile on her lips. “Pandora doesn’t deserve you, Ro.”

“Yes, it does,” he says surely, his free hand resting on her waist. “It is worth fighting for, despite it’s flaws, and if Jack is bringing the fight to us then we’re going to be ready.” 

“And he’s going to rue the day he ever knocked down New Haven’s door,” the ghost of a smirk crosses Lilith’s face, “when we grind his face to the dirt.”

“That’s my girl.” Roland says warmly, giving her a last kiss before standing. “I promised Mordecai I’d meet him at Moxxi’s for drinks, you coming?”

She nods and stands, sliding under his arm to wrap her arm around his waist. “Thank you.” 

“What for?” He smiles, giving her a squeeze.

She leans up to peck his cheek and smiles back.

“Everything.”

**Author's Note:**

> This little one-shot wouldn't leave me alone and you guys know how much I love these two - I couldn't resist. Thank you for reading!


End file.
